unintelligible

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + intelligible.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The base adjective is from Middle French intelligible or its source Latin intellegibilis (“that can understand; that can be understood”),^[2][3][7] from intellegō (“to understand, perceive”).^[3][7][5] Johnson derived the English word from French inintelligible.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not able to be understood: 1616, in Bullokar's English Expositor.^[2][9] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1610–20.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1651, in Hobbes's Leviathan, it was used especially of language and statements, or of people in what they say.^[2] Its base intelligible had meant “able to understand, intelligent” in Middle English,^[3] and in 1694 unintelligible was used once for “unintelligent”, a rare sense now obsolete.^[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as “not such as can be understood”, quoting Swift on Latin having been as hard to follow three hundred years before Tully as old English and French are now.^[8] As a noun, an unintelligible thing, it is recorded from 1838, in Southey.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1616 – not able to be understood.^[2][9]
• 1651 – of language, statements or speakers.^[2]
• 1694 – unintelligent (rare, now obsolete).^[2][9]
• 1838 – noun, an unintelligible thing.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impossible or very hard to understand; incomprehensible or obscure: The message on the answering machine was unintelligible.^[10][4][2]
2. Of speech or writing, too indistinct or confused to make out.^[2][10]

Noun

1. Something that cannot be understood.^[2][5]

Word family

• unintelligibility
• unintelligibly
• unintelligibleness

Related words

• intelligible
• intelligent
• intellect
• unintelligent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins